IT’S a joke that Liverpool FC face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Carling Cup tonight – just 48 hours after such a hard-fought game with Manchester City.

The Football League have done us no favours whatsoever with such a ludicrous schedule.

Chelsea have had an extra day’s rest and having played at home in the league on Saturday they’ve had no travelling either.

But we have to get on with it and I honestly believe Liverpool FC are still capable of getting through to the semi-finals.

Kenny Dalglish will make a lot of changes but it will still be a strong side. I’m expecting Pepe Reina in goal and a back four of Martin Kelly, Jamie Carragher, Sebastian Coates and Danny Wilson.

Then a midfield of Maxi Rodriguez, Jordan Henderson, Jay Spearing and possibly Dirk Kuyt with Craig Bellamy and Andy Carroll up front.

That’s not a bad team and there’s no reason why we can’t go down there and get a result.

We’ve been saying all season that the squad has greater depth than we’ve had for years and this is the perfect game in which to show that.

It’s an opportunity for certain players to show the manager what they can do.

We’re underdogs on the night because we’re away and Chelsea won’t have to rest as many of their top players. But we’ve already won twice at Stamford Bridge during 2011. Those games haven’t been flukes – Kenny knows what it takes to win down there.

There’s no point moaning about the schedule. The attitude has to be ‘let’s show the organisers that we won’t allow them to wreck our push for Wembley’.

I’ve been in positions like this in the past and sometimes that sense of injustice can fire players up.

The Carling Cup hasn’t been kind to us this season. This is our fourth successive away trip having won at Exeter, Brighton and Stoke.

But you have to take what you are given and hopefully it will even itself out and we’ll get some luck in the FA Cup.

The good thing is that we’re going into tonight’s game on a high after the performance against Manchester City.

It was the best game I’ve seen at Anfield for a long time. We might not have won but as a spectacle it had everything and the atmosphere was electric.

It was very entertaining and we certainly deserved more than a point.

I thought City shaded it in the first half but in the second half we were by far the better side.

We got a bit of luck with our equaliser but Joe Hart denied us a winner with some great saves.